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Well, really, yay Steve. Steve’s company got me to do some spreadsheet cleanup work for them, and to give me incentive to use every second that Liam didn’t need me on their work, they bribed me with an iPod nano for payment. Which is perfect. If anyone wants to bribe me with electronics, I am totally up for it

You do know about the nano right? It is tiny and light and beautiful and absolutely perfect for running with. You can get and armband for it and it has a timer built right in that will beep at you through your earphones. No more constantly looking at my watch while running to see if the timer has gone off yet cause I can’t hear the beep over my music. So exciting. I can’t wait for him to bring it home.

And the baby has napped fairly well today. This is definitely a good day.

Update: After Emira’s comment, I decided to actually look into the timer thing ’cause I was working on assumptions, and it seems that the iPod nano has a stopwatch, not a timer. And that is not as useful to me since there is really no track near us. I run intervals, not laps. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to keep using my watch until I work back up to 5k. Then a stopwatch will do. I’m still excited about it, just not quite as.

Second week down and I am still “on program,” which means that I have been staying within my points and haven’t exclaimed SCREW THIS while ramming my face into an entire cheesecake. I’ve come close, but alas I am cheesecake free. And I am down another 1.6 lbs for a total of 4 lbs so far – which takes me to 164.8 I guess. The number is a good benchmark, but I want to assure you that I am not hung up on the number. I know that I am generally a heavy person, and I don’t mean heavy as a euphemism for fat, I mean I tend to weigh on the heavy side. Have I told you this already? Since having a baby I constantly feel like I am repeating myself. Anyhow, those of you who knew me at my lightest can attest that at 119 lbs I looked emaciated and 119 is a respectable weight for a 5’3″ woman. Just not this 5’3″ woman. So, I use the number to show you a change, not in an obsessive need to weigh less. I am much more interested in fitting into my clothes – I’ll let you know as I get into smaller pants.

On the exercise front, I am still not running, though I have a date to run with Jess and Guy on Thursday. Which will probably kill me – I haven’t been running consistently, they have. I gotta start somewhere though and I think it will help to keep me motivated if I am accountable to some other people. Do you see that I am motivated by shame – or more appropriately the desire to avoid shame? Remember that if you ever want to try to get me to do something. It will be very manipulative of you, but it will probably work.

All in all it’s going well – the worst is it is annoying to have to measure things and figure out points values for standard dinner things that I make, but if that’s the hardest thing about it, I think I’ve got a good chance of being successful at this. I have in the past. Yay me!

I know that if he reads this as a teenager it will be the source of much therapy, but remember how I said that Liam is working on crawling? Well, he can now get himself up on all fours and he will rock back and forth, with an enormous grin on his face cause he is so proud of himself. Entirely too cute.

BUT. When he gets tired, his bum drops and then he humps the floor or whatever surface he happens to be on. And since he is new to all this and his muscles are just developing, my sweet little baby spends a heck of a lot of time making it with the floor. I find this endlessly funny.

I love my cute little floor-humper!

My first week went pretty well. I was down 2.4 lbs. I stayed within my points (WW assigns points to food based on calorie, fat and fibre content) and managed to get out for a walk every day. This week I need to concentrate on drinking more water and start running again – so far, not so great Though I am planning on running when Steve gets home from work tonight.

The major difference I notice is that I feel better – possibly due to the reduction of refined sugar in my diet, but I think it’s actually all in my head. I have everything written down and I know that I am in control which makes me feel better about myself and I am less critical of my body. A very good thing. But it’s a real bitch having to walk by Starbucks 5 million times each time I leave the house and not get a chai and a scone because that is half my points for the entire day, yikes! I used to have that for a snack – nearly every day – no wonder I wasn’t losing the baby weight. Curse Vancouver for multiple Starbucks on every corner.

My plan is to stick to it consistently for 12 weeks and the re-evaluate where I am. Week 1 of 12 down and so far so good. Feel free to join me if you are so inclined.

My baby’s famous.

Twitch (the cat who doesn’t wake me up with incessant meowing at all hours of the night) loves to curl up near Liam. I think this is because Liam is guaranteed to touch him and Twitch, like his brother Sam (the cat who wakes me up with incessant meowing at all hours of the night), is an attention whore. Weird thing is, he will stick around through all of Liam’s abuse, cause being that he is only 7.5 months, Liam doesn’t so much pet the cat as much as he grabs his fur and pulls. They are pretty cute together though and Liam sure gets a kick out of Twitch:

Yeah, so I’m kinda behind. Life has had me a bit overwhelmed and that leaves me very unfocused. Ability to focus is essential for writing, hence, no writing. What’s been going on, you ask? Well…

For starters, Steve has been incredibly stressed at work. When he finally comes home, he vents about it to me, which leaves me incredible stressed, so not a whole lot of fun. He is oftentimes the only adult conversation I have, so when the only conversation I get is always negative, my mood tends to take a nosedive. He seems to be through the worst of it and voila! Here I am posting again.

I have started Weight Watchers again. I like it cause I can eat whatever I want, it just gives me a sense of control and accountability with regard to what I put in my mouth. And it gives me an excuse to get out of the house too, which is great when you have a baby. I weigh in on Tuesdays, and I have decided to be brave and share with you all how it goes. So, last Tuesday I weighed in at 168.8 lbs, my pre-pregnancy weight was 144 lbs, and the goal I have in my head is 140 lbs. That may seem heavy for a 5’3″ shorty like myself, but I’m pretty muscular and I look emaciated at 120, so 140 seems reasonable. I weigh in again this afternoon, so I’ll let you know how it went tomorrow, Wednesday will be my WW Update day so you can see how it goes.

Another exciting event is that our very tight financial position is loosening up a bit and in addition to being able to save up for things like my school and a car and a new Widescreen HDTV, we are having a girl come in to clean our place for us every two weeks. We have found a very reasonable service to do the kitchen, bathroom and floors and I am SO STOKED! It means less stress for me, cause I’m not the best housekeeper – I’m very feast or famine in that department and this will keep us more consistent. I’ll just have to do spot cleaning between visists and can focus on Liam without worrying about the kitchen floors that need to be mopped and the dust bunnies that are threatening to take form and eat us. Oh my god, I am so happy about this.

Liam is SO close to crawling. I have purchased all the babyproofing supplies and Steve and I need to get on that ASAP. He has also started swimming lessons and he is a superstar! No crying, just smiles and splashing and kicking and he is so cute. We are going on Saturday mornings so it can be Liam and Daddy time. I went to watch, but when the novelty of it wears off, I can use this as me time – mmmmmmmm…. time by myself, oh the decadence.

So, that’s my quick State of the Homefront Address. Tune in a bit later for some cuteness, I can hear him waking up, so bye-bye. It’s nice to be back.

Yes I am back from Kentucky and I haven’t posted. I am still recovering from my vacation and plan to soon be back on track with the blogging, but I could barely get my shit together just to take this very simple, yet very cure picture of Liam for you. Note the very attractive wet ring o’ drool around his collar. This is the latest fashion trend with urban babies and is expected to last as the must have accessory for quite some time. We are oh so proud of Liam’s ability to sport this particular item with every outfit we put him in. YUM!

This has to be quick cause Liam is waking up and I have to get him back to sleep, but here is your weekly dose from Kentucky. We went out for a walk and Liam fell asleep. SO CUTE! Notice his rosy cheeks? You would think that it is from the cold, but no, it is from teething. He currently has perma-rosy cheeks. It looks like we have painted two circles of red rouge on his face, but really we haven’t. Hope your Christmas and other celebrations have been going swell. I’ll see y’all in a couple of days. We are having a spectacular time with Steve’s side of the family. We even went to a movie today. YAY!

So we are off on a plane to Kentucky tomorrow to join Steve‘s family for Christmas. I am freaking out a little – partially expecting Liam to be a horror on the plane and partially because of everything I still have to do to be ready to leave. Oh, how I long for the carefree days of childless travel when you could pack the day of and just step out the door into a taxi. Now there is planning and buying and lugging and juggling and preparing food and OH MY GOD I AM FREAKING OUT! Did I say a little before – silly me.

So a little family update for you before I leave town – I’m not sure if I’ll have much of a chance to post while we are gone. I’ll be sure to give you your Tuesday Dose, but other than that – ???

On the homefront, Steve has been working like a madman trying to get as much done as possible before we leave. Which means I have been by myself with Liam alot which stresses me out and probably stresses Liam out in turn. Which may be why he has been having trouble getting to sleep at night. Naps have been fine and once he gets to sleep at night, he’s been good, but it’s been anywhere from one to TWO AND A HALF HOURS to get him to sleep. By myself. Which sucks, but I’ve managed to deal with it okay.

Liam turned seven months old yesterday and his first tooth is just trying to make an appearance. This may have something to do with his sleep problem, but I don’t think so cause you’d think he would be cranky and hard to put down during the day too. I have a feeling that this is probably early separation anxiety rearing its ugly head – perfect timing when we are about to be with family that will free Steve and I to have some couple time. Oh well – I guess we’ll see.

He is working hard on crawling. He pushes himself up on his arms and kicks his little legs like crazy – so much so that I am worried he’s going to break a toe – but he still hasn’t figured out that he also needs to lift with his legs to get mobile. Just this morning I could tell he was trying to put weight on his knees as well, he just doesn’t seem to have the strength yet. Soon though – GULP!

I’m not getting as much sleep as I’d like, nor as much exercise – with the holidays, my focus has been elsewhere. I plan to start spending as much time planning my health as I do planning Liam’s starting in the New Year.

Which brings me to the end of my post. Liam is waking up from his nap and I have laundry to retrieve and shopping to do. So, wish me luck on our first plane trip with baby and I’ll be back at least on Tuesday.

Happy Holidays!